Utility Exchange Staff

Ed Thomas is Executive Director of UtilityExchange.org.  During his 30-year career, Ed helped reposition the Peak Load Management Alliance, founded the Rocky Mountain Utility Exchange, produced over 20 Home Energy Makeover Contests sponsored by utilities nationwide; managed a utility-owned geothermal heat pump installation company, helped launch a smart meter company, and revitalized meeting activities for the Edison Electric Institute.

PLMA contracted with UtilityExchange.org in 2012 and Ed served as PLMA's Executive Director from January 2013 to April 2020. UtilityExchange.org provides association management, strategic consultation, and tactical event production to help enhance learning and networking among energy and water utilities, government entities, and other like-minded companies and organizations.

Ed Thomas was Vice President, Utility and Government Services for the Electric & Gas Industries Association (EGIA) from May 2010 to September 2012. EGIA is a non-profit organization that serves member contractors, manufacturers and distributors focused on delivering energy and water efficiency and renewable energy solutions.

Ed previously served on the Boards of the Home Performance Resource Center and Electric & Gas Industries Association and was an adjunct professor at Skyline College in San Bruno, California. He is highly regarded in the energy utility industry as an engaging event producer, compelling presenter, and innovative program designer.

Ed Thomas was Managing Partner of Market Development Group, a leading utility energy industry consulting firm that provided strategic and tactical program design, implementation and evaluation services, as well as event and publications management for utilities and public agencies delivering energy efficiency, renewable energy and demand response programs.

Ed was the Manager of Intermountain Energy, a subsidiary of the 30,000-member Delta-Montrose Electric Association (DMEA) in Montrose, Colorado. He was instrumental in DMEA becoming the first electric cooperative to receive a national ENERGY STAR® Award.

For MainStreet Networks, Ed helped reposition the company from an automatic meter reading manufacturer to an affinity marketer of residential Internet gateway services. For Volt VIEWtech, Ed helped reposition the company from being a demand side management program provider to a residential customer program implementer. For the Edison Electric Institute, Ed revitalized meeting activities; doubling attendance to over 2,500 for 20 annual conferences.

Ed earned a Master's of Science degree in Marketing from The American University, Washington, DC, and a Bachelor's of Science degree in Communications from Butler University. Ed served as a U.S. Navy spokesperson during Desert Storm, frequently quoted in USA Today and other national publications. Ed was a co-founder of the Timshel Theater Company in Montrose, Colorado. He lives with his wife, Tiger Adolf, in Vallejo, California.

Tiger Adolf has been Operations Director at UtilityExchange.org and Member Services Director for PLMA since January 2015. She has more than 20 years' experience working with state and federal agencies; investor-owned, cooperative, and municipal utilities; and non-profit and academic institutions in the energy industry. Her strong business and legal background and skills include organization, project, and financial management; proposal and grant writing; stakeholder processes; and event production. Tiger has managed multi-million dollar non-profit organizations and worked with the most complex and intensely regulated utility programs in the country.

Tiger previously served as the Director of Program Design and Market Development at Building Performance Institute, Inc. (BPI), where she actively supported utility and government sponsors and program administrators at all levels to design and course-correct residential energy efficiency programs to develop a viable business model for their trade ally and manufacturer networks, while still achieving the resource acquisition, energy efficiency, or carbon saving results they sought. She has worked closely with U.S. DOE, EPA, HUD, NASEO, NASCSP, NCAF, BetterBuildings, Efficiency First, National Home Performance Council, CPUC, CEC, and numerous national, regional, and local organizations and agencies. Tiger designed and launched BPI's Rater Program, working closely with U.S. DOE to create the first nationwide Home Energy Score Partnership. Tiger crafted educate-and-advise focused comments in dozens of federal and state regulatory and legislative proceedings, testified in multiple states at workshops and hearings, and aided in drafting programmatic rules, legislation, and roadmap and process improvement documents without taking an advocacy position.

An accomplished speaker and presenter, Tiger has delivered hundreds of in person and web presentations for associations, government, and at major utility and contractor conferences, as well as serving on the agenda planning committees for regional and national Affordable Comfort Institute conferences, Wyoming Utility Exchange, Rocky Mountain Utility Efficiency Exchange, and several Contractor Exchanges.

A recovering attorney, Tiger retired from the Wyoming Bar in 2013. Her educational achievements include:

• J.D., University of Wyoming, Laramie, 1996
• B.S., Agricultural Business, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, 1993
• A.A.S., Farm Business Management and Analysis, Northeastern Junior College, Sterling, Colorado, 1987

Sharon Dobson is an event manager for UtilityExchange.org as a subcontractor through Cascading Connections. Sharon has been involved with the planning and production of conferences, workshops and events for the last 20 years. She began her career as the business manager of the Hatch Cover Restaurant in Colorado Springs. During her fourteen years in that position, Sharon oversaw the opening of four additional restaurants in Wichita, Albuquerque, Denver and Colorado Springs by setting up the systems, hiring and training employees. During this period, Sharon participated in organizing the Cystic Fibrosis Walk from 1989-1993. She also helped to found the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation in Colorado Springs and JDF Walk from 1994-1997.